The Name that is Above Every Name

"In The Beginning ……Was A Name"

Before the beginningof Christianity as we know it today, there was a Name, and that name was Yeshua. Some people who give an explanation of that Name will tell you that it is Jesus’ name in the Hebrew language. But actually that is inaccurate. What is accurate is that it is the Messiah’s name, not a translation or transliteration into Hebrew of the name Jesus.

In the bible, we have many examples of names having meaning. We remember that Yitz’chak (Isaac in English) was given his name which means laughter because Sarah laughed when she heard that G-d said she was going to have a baby. Yeshua means “Yahweh saves” in Hebrew. When the angel appeared to Joseph in a dream he said, “You are to name him Yeshua BECAUSE he will save his people from their sins.” He was named Yeshua because he was going to save.

“Jesus” is not a translation of the name “Yeshua,” but a transliteration. Therefore, the name Jesus, although it has a marvelous connotation to numerous people, has no factual definition.

One interesting point about a name is identity. If you know someone, you call them by their name. If you have ever spent time in a foreign speaking country, you no doubt have experienced an alteration in your name. Those closest to you have most likely called you by your correct name, if they know it. If you are reading this, chances are that you are close to Jesus. Why not call him Yeshua? His mother even called him Yeshua!

In Acts 26:14-15, Sha’ul (Saul in English) was telling King Agrippa about his Dammesek (Damascus) road encounter. He heard a voice speaking to him in Hebrew. It was the Messiah, who, speaking in Hebrew, identified himself by his name, Yeshua.

Why is this all so important? Well, first of all, it is truth. Occasionally we have a hard time with truth that contradicts what we are comfortable with in our emotions and our minds. For us, as Jewish believers, this name issue is significant because history has taken Yeshua’s Jewish identity so far away from truth that most Jewish people see him as the “Gentile G-d” and therefore miss the fact that he is their promised Messiah. Another tragic piece of history is the killing of the Jewish people by Christians in the name of Jesus—a name given to him by Gentile believers long after his resurrection and ascension. If his name had remained Yeshua (as the angel commanded Joseph to name him) his Jewish identity would have remained and the killing of Jewish people in the name of Yeshua, would have been very unlikely. But as history has twisted history, even some Gentiles today still see Yeshua as the Gentile-only G-d. Isn’t it time YOU called on Yeshua, the Messiah of Israel by his G-d-given name?

NOTE: The above article is a copy of the page at www.torahbytes.org/sechel/name.htm. The information is well-written, and we did not feel that we could improve upon it (except for some minor grammar, spelling, and punctuation changes). However, as frequently as pages on the Internet appear and then disappear, we felt that it would be a shame to lose this information.

We are firmly convinced that neither Yeshua HaMashiach nor the Shliachim intended to start a “new religion,” but rather only to fulfill, complete, and correct what was missing in Judaism. We therefore believe that the most valid form of worship is that practiced by Yeshua and His talmidim (disciples). We have therefore chosen to identify ourselves with that group of believers that is known variously as “the Messianic Movement,” “Messianic Judaism,“ or “Messianic Restoration.”

We further believe that much of the conflict that exists between Jewish believers in Mashiach and Gentile believers in Mashiach has been caused by anti-Semitic and anti-Gentile language that has crept into the household of faith. For example, the word “Jesus” is nothing but a compounding of errors. Nobody who every knew Yeshua in the flesh ever referred to Him by that word. In fact, it is grammatically impossible to say that word in either Hebrew or Aramaic, as neither language has the “jay” sound.

When His name was transliterated from the Hebrew of the original Apostolic Scriptures into Greek for transmission to the Gentile and Greek-speaking Jewish Messianic Believers in the Diaspora, the name was rendered in Greek as “Iesu.” When the “church” became centered in Rome and the Greek Scriptures were translated into Latin, the Romans added an "s" on the end of His name (because virtually all masculine Latin words end in "s") making it "Iesus." Then the Germans came along during the Reformation and changed the "I" to a "J" making the word "Jesus." And then the men who translated the Latin and German version of the Scriptures into English didn’t bother to correct the error. In the meantime, as more and more Gentiles were brought into Nazarene Judaism, Yeshua became thought of less as the Jewish Messiah and more as the “Gentile G-d.”

As the Gentile “church” became more and more anti-Semitic and the persecutions “in the name of Jesus” became increasingly severe, Jews around the world began to hate that word more and more, and for good reason. But just stop and think how difficult that persecution would have been if the Gentiles had remembered that they were nothing more or less than “adopted” members of a distinctly Jewish sect. And how much more difficult it would have been to persecute Jews “in the name of” Yeshua, the Jewish Messiah. (See also our discussion on the word Jehovah.)

"In The Beginning ……Was A Name"

In the bible, we have many examples of names having meaning. We remember that Yitz’chak (Isaac in English) was given his name which means laughter because Sarah laughed when she heard that God said she was going to have a baby. Yeshua means "salvation" in Hebrew. When the angel appeared to Joseph in a dream he said, "You are to name him Yeshua BECAUSE he will save his people from their sins. " He was named Yeshua because he was going to save.

Jesus is not a translation of the name Yeshua, but a transliteration. Therefore, the name Jesus, although it has a marvelous connotation to numerous people, has no factual definition.

One interesting point about a name is identity. If you know someone, you call them by their name. If you have ever spent time in a foreign speaking country, you no doubt have experienced an alteration in your name. Those closest to you have most likely called you by your correct name, if they know it.

In Acts 26:14-15, Sha’ul (Saul in English) was telling King Agrippa about his Dammesek (Damascus) road encounter. He heard a voice speaking to him in Hebrew. It was the Messiah, who, speaking in Hebrew, identified himself by his name, Yeshua.

Why is this all so important. Well, first of all, it is truth. Occasionally we have a hard time with truth that contradicts what we are comfortable with in our emotions and our minds. For us, as Jewish believers, this name issue is significant because history has taken Yeshua’s Jewish identity so far away from truth that most Jewish people see him as the Gentile god and therefore miss the fact that he is their promised Messiah. Another tragic piece of history is the killing of the Jewish people by Christians in the name of Jesus. If his name had remained Yeshua (as the angel commanded Joseph to name him) his Jewish identity would have remained and the killing of Jewish people in the name of Yeshua, would have been very unlikely. But as history has twisted history, even some Jewish people today still see Yeshua as the "Gentile only" god. Isn’t it time YOU called on Yeshua, the Messiah of Israel by his God given name? Isn’t it time you asked the G-d of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob if Yeshua is the Messiah of Israel?